Men lose shootout to OC

Rakestraw had 20 points in a 71-70 loss to No. 25 Oklahoma Christian on Thursday night.

Oklahoma City (February 25, 2010) - The JBU men’s basketball team couldn’t come away with the road win on Thursday night losing 71-70 to No. 25 Oklahoma Christian in a game where both teams combined for 22 threes.

Coleson Rakestraw led the way for JBU with 20 points after going 6-of-11 from downtown. Davaughn Jackson added 15 all coming in the second half.

For OC (22-7, 14-7), Jason Taylor finished with 16 points.

JBU took a two point, 41-39, lead into halftime behind a strong first half performance from Rakestraw. But the second period was a back and forth battle with four ties and seven lead changes. With 4:52 remaining in the game, Taylor scored consecutive buckets to tie things up at 64. Adrian Miller scored on the next possession for JBU to give the Golden Eagles the lead temporarily, but a pair of free throws from Chad Endres and a three from Jeff Crocker put OC back ahead by three, 69-66, with 3:18 left.

JBU cut it back to a one point game after Sam Bartlett followed up a Rakestraw miss to make it 69-68, but Crocker answered again on the other end with a deep two for the 71-68 lead with 2:21 left.

After several missed opportunities, Rakestraw had a chance to tie but missed long. Jackson, however, was there for the monster stick back to make it a one point game with 45 seconds remaining.

On OC’s next possession they tried to use as much clock as possible but were forced to shoot a tough shot. JBU got the rebound with 13 seconds left but turned the ball over before they could get a shot off. With five seconds left, JBU fouled and sent David Jackson to the line for the one-and-one. Jackson missed the first and JBU grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 1.6 seconds left in the game. JBU got the ball in to Abel Galliguez who missed from half court as time expired.

“Our kids played hard,” said head coach Clark Sheehy. “But we can’t come in and expect to win with 23 turnovers. We got good action and did the things we needed to do defensively to win the game, but they did a good job of making timely shots and timely plays.”

For the game, JBU shot 48% from the floor while giving up 41% to OC. OC only turned the ball over nine times while forcing JBU to commit 23. JBU crushed OC on the boards 45-22.

Now 20-9 overall and 12-9 in the Sooner Athletic Conference, the Golden Eagles close out the regular season as they host Northwestern Okla. State at home on Saturday at 6 p.m.